Ayala Foundation invests in the future through education

MANILA, Philippines - After Marina Mangaban earned her license as a teacher, she knew there was only one place to go: Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. It is, after all, home, where she grew up as a member of the indigenous Iraya Mangyan group.

One of the first Mangyans to successfully hurdle the licensure examinations for teachers, Marina is back where she started at Talipanan Mangyan School. There, she imparts not only lessons in English, Math, and Filipino, but also the value of education to a new generation of Iraya Mangyan children.

Marina has Ayala Foundation’s integrated community development program for the indigenous community of Oriental Mindoro to thank for her degree. The program is a continuing commitment that began in the 1980s as a personal initiative of Jaime and Beatriz Zobel.

Education is central to Ayala Foundation’s thrust to uplift the lives of Filipinos.

In the 1800s, one of the family’s managing partners, Margarita Roxas de Ayala, played a key role in forming an escuela pia, or charity school, for girls run by eight nuns from Spain. That school, established in 1868, exists to this day as Concordia College.

Then in the 1960s, Ayala established its foundation with an aim to support scientific, technological, and social science research for local conditions and economic needs such as food and nutrition security. 

As Ayala began building the country’s premier business district, it donated prime land for the establishment of the Asian Institute of Management. Parcels of land in Ayala’s subdivisions were also donated to other educational institutions and to this day, schools remain a critical part of Ayala Land’s development of communities.

Beyond scholarship

While support for education usually takes the form of scholarships, donations, and building classrooms, Ayala has also made interventions in the public school system that have had a high impact and can be scaled up or replicated.

The Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education (CENTEX), with schools in Tondo, Manila, and Bauan, Batangas, has been providing a unique learning environment for bright children from economically disadvantaged families.

Text2Teach is a pioneering program in education that has contributed to the reduction of dropout rates in grade schools by up to 48 percent, and the improvement of promotion rates, or a student’s movement to the next level, to as much as 98 percent.

Ayala was also instrumental in bringing Internet connectivity to public high schools, initially on its own initiative in the 1990s and later as part of the consortium called Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (GILAS). The program succeeded in connecting 47 percent of schools nationwide before the private sector turned it over to government in 2011.

Ayala recently invested in education to better prepare and equip our future workforce with the necessary skills and competencies. It is providing high-quality private education for Grades 7 to 12 under the APEC (Affordable Private Education Center) brand. 

Other investments such as LINC (Learning with Industry Collaboration) and Professional Employment Program (PEP) build on Ayala’s deep industry partnerships to bring an immersive educational experience for students in partner universities. Ayala also recently acquired a stake in the University of Nueva Caceres, a leading university in the Bicol region.

Tri-sectoral collaboration

Ayala is now preparing to support students in the post-graduate level, with emphasis on building collaboration among peers from business, government, and civil society. The scholarship program, which is being launched today, is a collaboration between Ayala Foundation and the Singapore Management University.

Under the leadership of its co-chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, the foundation will select up to four potential scholars for a master’s degree in tri-sector collaboration at SMU beginning 2016.

According to Ayala Foundation president Ruel Maranan, the anticipated creation of the ASEAN Economic Community as well as the continuing need to address many social challenges in the Philippines present both an opportunity and an impetus for Filipino graduate students to gain a global mindset and to learn to work together with those in other sectors to develop solutions for the most pressing issues. It is hoped that through education, these new scholars will “pay it forward” by creating positive change in their own community and in society.

Visit www.smu.edu.sg/mtsc or email [email protected] for more information on this program.